Romance on the High Seas
Georgia Garrett is sent by jealous wife Elvira Kent on an ocean cruise to masquerade as herself while she secretly stays home to catch her husband cheating. Meanwhile equally suspicious husband Michael Kent has sent a private eye on the same cruise to catch his wife cheating. Love and confusion ensues along with plenty of musical numbers.
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- Cast:
- Jack Carson , Janis Paige , Don DeFore , Doris Day , Oscar Levant , S.Z. Sakall , Fortunio Bonanova
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Reviews
Fantastic!
Beautiful, moving film.
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Doris Day's perky optimism was synonymous with the post-war optimism of the country following World War II, and it's no wonder she became popular and successful rather quickly. In Romance On The High Seas, her film debut, Day plays a struggling singer who daydreams about world travel by milling around a travel agency weekly. In so doing, she makes the acquaintance of Janis Paige, who isn't given much to do in the film, and her rich uncle played by S.Z. Sakall. Paige makes a proposition with Day to impersonate her on a cruise, so Paige can spy on her husband played by Don Defore, who will think Paige is a long ways away. Meanwhile, Defore hires a private detective, Jack Carson, to tail his wife impersonated by Day on the cruise. Complications ensue when Day and Carson fall for each other. Before the fadeout, Day has time to sing a few songs most notably of which is the Oscar-nominated "It's Magic". Incidentally, another Day smash won; "Buttons and Bows" from the Bob Hope/Jane Russel film: The Paleface. Ray Heindorf's musical score was also nominated.Julius and Philip Epstein wrote the fast-moving script with I.A.L. Diamond. Director Michael Curtiz keeps the film and its flimsy plot moving at a brisk pace and wisely rounded up able supporting players who add to the fun. Oscar Levant as Day's wisecracking, would-be, pianist beau, Eric Blore as the ship's doctor, Grady Sutton as the ship's radio operator, Franklin Pangborn as the busy-body hotel clerk in Rio, and John Berkes as the sneaky drunk on either side of Carson and Defore are all a delight. Busby Berkeley is listed as a choreographer, but there were not any production numbers typically associated with his style. Possibly Berkeley's work was edited out. Look fast for later horror hostess Vampira as a ship passenger. **1/2 of 4 stars.
Mr (Don Defore) and Mrs Kent (Janis Paige) suspect each other of having affairs so they set traps to catch each other out. The main part of the film is set aboard a cruise ship where Georgia (Doris Day) is pretending to be Mrs Kent (on Mrs Kent's instruction while the real Mrs Kent stays behind to spy on her husband) and detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) is hired to watch who he believes to be the real Mrs Kent by Mr Kent, who thinks that his wife is going on the cruise with someone else. Things get confusing for all those involved but everything works out in the end.There are 9 song breaks with the song "Its Magic" (identical chorus to "That's Amore") repeated 3 times - too much. The 2 songs not sung by Doris Day are terrible, while the other songs span the musical spectrum from bad to sentimental codswallop.As for the cast, they are fine with the acting honours going to Janis Paige. I thought that she was more interesting to watch than Doris Day. S Z Sakall who plays "Uncle Lazlo" is irritating and just precisely who's uncle is he? Oscar Levant who plays "Oscar" seems to be one of those permanently dislikeable people - a bit like Frank Sinatra - arrogant beyond reason - but I kind of like him in this film! The story gets a bit frustrating as every mix up that you can imagine gets thrown in which makes it tedious at times, especially at the end. The film is nothing great - it's a colourful time-filler with some interesting fashion to watch, some amusing dialogue, way too many complications and some rubbish songs. It's lightweight fluff.
Watching Romance on the High Seas I could have sworn that the Brothers Warner hijacked one of the plots of an RKO Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film. It's got that kind of silliness in the plot, the usual case of mistaken identities and false suspicions that characterized the Astaire- Rogers films.Don DeFore and Janis Paige are a couple each of who swears the other is cheating. When a mix-up from a travel agency in passport photos where Paige's is exchanged for Doris Day's she contacts Day and offers to pay Day's way on a South American cruise if she just travels in Paige's name. She wants to catch DeFore cheating.Of course DeFore goes one better. He hires private detective Jack Carson to go on the trip and catch Paige cheating. Of course he latches on to Day.If you are a fan of Astaire-Rogers films you know exactly where this one is going. Romance on the High Seas has all the ingredients of one of their films except the dance numbers.It doesn't lack for a good musical score though. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn came up with a good one where Day sings several songs, including the Academy Award nominated, It's Magic. It's Magic lost that year to Buttons and Bows. It's Magic happens to be a favorite one of mine of Doris Day hits. Doris firmly establishes her image in this one. She's so radiant and sings so well, I can't believe she was a third choice for this film behind Judy Garland and Betty Hutton.If you hear violins coming from some unknown source it will be the magic when you're watching Romance on the High Seas.
Day's feature film debut is in this Technicolor musical-comedy. She plays a singer posing as a society girl on a South American Cruise, falling in love with the private detective (Carson) who was hired to follow her. Story is certainly out of style now, but is enjoyable thanks to some funny moments with the cast and Day's singing, most memorably `It's Magic!'